by James Ehlers

Don’t know what a “Bright Green Lie” looks or sounds like? Here’s a painful one from Montpelier this week:

“We’ve got the land, we’ve got the space, we’ve got to force development.” — Vermont lawmakers and self-proclaimed environmentalists. Watch it here.

I don’t think this is what Rachel Carson had in mind.

In fact, it is exactly what she was fighting against when she courageously called out “the basic irresponsibility of an industrialized, technological society toward the natural world.”

A truly healthy economy is in harmony with the ecology.  What we have now is sick. A very sick economy predicated on exploitation and extraction. And the prescription offered by the powerful, the ruling class? Bleed Vermont of all its remaining life even faster. Accelerate the transfer of our natural world’s remaining wealth to them! The innocent children of the Congo, of China, of Brazil, of the U.S, of Vermont be damned.  The ruling class, in their own words, are willing to use force.

Don’t believe me? Then believe Lake Champlain. Believe the Lamoille, the Missisquoi, the Otter, the Winooski. Believe the wild ones. Fight back for them.

For more context, read the book; watch the film: https://www.brightgreenlies.com/ Then watch “Planet of the Humans” and read the book Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival.

Thank you for being the change. With gratitude, on behalf of those downstream.

The author is Children’s Environmental Health Director at Vermonters for a Clean Environment (VCE).